Girls golf: Berthoud’s Molli Boruff takes first place at Erie League Meet

Standout Berthoud High School golfer Molli Boruff, a 2015 state qualifier, appears to not have missed a beat over the offseason. Despite deplorable conditions with wind gusts in excess of 40 miles-per-hour, Boruff took the gold medal at the opening tournament of the season by shooting a 91 (45-46) at Saddleback Golf Course in Firestone.

The wind, made worse given Saddleback is a links-style course with very few trees to serve as wind barriers, made it almost impossible to shoot a low score.

“The wind was bad and [Boruff] hated every minute of it and was disappointed in her score but very happy to win the match,” said Berthoud Head Coach Mary Durkin.

Durkin explained Boruff is playing with a new set of clubs and has made big strides driving the ball. “Her long game has improved tremendously.”

While Boruff is the anchor of the Berthoud squad, Durkin has high hopes for rest of the team.

“They have all been working on their games,” Durkin said, and noted two girls are getting private lessons and a third will soon be returning to a swing coach.

“Kyra McDonald is a sophomore and rising fast,” she said. “Mikaela Matzen has been putting time into her game as well and hopes to go out strong for her senior year.”

As a team, Berthoud finished in third place in the six-team tournament with a team score of 377, behind first-place Windsor (296) and Skyline (298). Other Berthoud individual scores: Kyra McDonald (59-61, 120), Shannyn McEntee (61-65, 126) and Alex Ryan (69-66, 135).

Tennis: Lady Spartans split matches with Mead, Mountain View

Just two matches into the 2016 season, the Berthoud High School tennis team finds itself with a respectable 1-1 record. In the standard three-singles and four-doubles format, Berthoud bested Mountain View 5-2 on March 10 and fell to Mead 3-4 on March 14.

For Berthoud Head Coach Leigh Vitasek and assistant Eric Sorensen, the challenge of coaching a largely young and inexperienced squad has them excited to watch the season progress.

“We’re both players, we have a real love of the game, and it’s really cool to pass that on to kids that have never played,” Said Vitasek. “We haven’t had enough time to teach them everything they need to know before they compete; they just have to play. We call it being match-tough, and pretty much none of our team is match-tough yet.”

Berthoud’s No. 1 singles Emily Marty, who Vitasek said, “is probably our only one who I would call match-tough,” has been victorious in her matches of the young season, topping her Mountain View opponent 6-2, 6-3 and then, after dropping the first set to Mead’s Cara Fitzpatrick 6-2, won 6-3 and 0-0 (10-3).

All four of Berthoud’s doubles pairings won their matches over Mountain View: Leah Marty and Skye Kearney (6-4, 6-2), Carly Thomas and Riley Lundgreen (6-4, 6-2), Jenna Whitmore and Meghan Lucero (6-4, 4-6, 6-4) and Lilli Homeier and Natalie Stoesz (6-1, 6-0) while Leah Marty and Kearney (3-6, 6-3, 0-0 (10-8)) and Whitmore and Lucero (6-4, 4-6, 6-4) also won their matches against Mead.

Track and field: Berthoud girls take third, boys fourth, at City-to-City Challenge

The Spartans have such an embarrassment of riches on their track-and-field team that it led Berthoud Head Coach Colby Shultz to say before the season, “We have so many great athletes out this year, it’s going to take a while to figure out who fits best where. So we’re going to sit back at the early meets and see who surprises us.”

Yet some athletes’ performances came as no surprise at all. Senior pole-vaulter Josie Spitz took first on March 10 at the City-to-City Challenge at Northridge with an 11’6” vault and second at the Golden Spike Meet at Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins at 10’6” on March 10. Alyssa Strong took first in the triple jump (32’2.50”) at Golden Spike and second in both the triple jump (32’2.00”) and 100m hurdles (16.21s) at City-to-City.

Max Bump took second in the shot put with a distance of 43’11.5” at City-to-City while teammate Jamie Gray won the gold in the discus throw with a distance of 134’ 5”. McCallan Castles cleared 5’10” in the high jump at both meets, good enough for a first and second place finish. John Koclanes took first in the javelin throw with a distance of 148’8” at Golden Spike and Spartans’ Everett Owens jumped 40’ 0.5” in the triple jump at City-to-City to take first.

In something of a surprise, Berthoud freshman Cailey Archer cleared 5’4” in the high jump, tying the school record of senior Kristina Cavey, who also jumped 5’4” at Golden Spike to share first place with her younger teammate. The pair tied for second place at City-to-City, each clearing 5’2”.

Next up, Berthoud competes at the Windsor Invitational on March, 19.

– Dan Karpiel